Bottlenose dolphins, humpback whale spotted off the East End

Local marine biologist and northforker outdoors columnist Chris Paparo spotted two notable sights just south of Dune Road last week — a pod of about 100 bottlenose dolphins slapping their tails against the water and a humpback whale leaping in the air.

Paparo saw the animals on Wednesday, July 5 and again on Thursday, July 6 in the water about a half mile south of Westhampton Beach and Hampton Bays.

Historically, humpback whales were known to inhabit the waters off Long Island, but for decades sightings of these creatures have been rare. However, in the past few years humpback whale sightings in the Long Island Sound have become more common.

“In our lifetime, it’s been unheard of,” said Paparo, who is the Stony Brook University Marine Sciences Center Manager. “But if you went back a couple hundred of years, Long Island was a big whaling port.”

“It’s exciting, I wasn’t expecting that to happen. I had been watching the whale but he was far away,” he said.

“You have got to keep your distance,” Paparo said, adding that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries advises boaters stay at least 100 feet away from the animals, which can grow up to 60 feet long.

Bottlenose dolphins have also been spotted in the Sound in the past few years. Paparo and other biologists attribute the whale and dolphins’ presence to an abundance of bait fish drawing the animals in.

Paparo cautioned that he collected about 30 deflated mylar balloons floating on the water’s surface while watching the animals. He hopes that awareness of these marine animals will encourage people to rethink how they dispose of those items.

“It gets people excited, like ‘alright, let’s care about the environment,'” he said. “Then maybe we won’t release these balloons.”

For more awesome captures from Paparo, follow him on Instagram, @fishguyphotos, and Facebook.

Northforker columnist Chris Paparo spotted a humpback whale just south of the East End of Long Island last week. (Credit: Chris Paparo)

One Comment

The Dolphins are feeding on a sea lily, which, one occasion, populates there. White sea lily, Be on the look for Grey White Sharks, that many dolphins grouped in an area like that will attract them. Those grey whites are immature Great White Sharks, in time they follows those grey whites in and teach then to leave those sea lily alone. What about the dolphins, they will fight over those sea lily, that is, until the mature shark arrives, the Great White. And that brings in the Tiger Shark known to those waters. Unnh… about two to five years it will get interesting.